There was a time when I could never get into manga. I would browse through titles like Fruits Basket and Chobits thinking that these titles were all the medium had to offer. Silly girls and oversexed mechanical women weren’t something I wanted to read about. Then a friend of mine showed me the light. Just like American comics, there are good and bad Japanese comics. There are those with little substance, and those with characters that pull at your heartstrings. Fullmetal Alchemist was my first glimpse at what “good” manga meant. Edward and Alphonse are the perfect mix of flawed and miserable, yet optimistic and determined. The plot is heartbreaking and tense, leaving no doubt that a book with pictures can also produce some mighty fine writing. I devoured the manga and moved on to the anime, also my first introduction to this interesting (and often weird) type of show. The anime doesn’t follow the books, but stands on its own two legs with different types of antagonists and mayhem. I’ve delved some more into different series, but this will always be my favorite. Whether it really is the best, or I’m just riding the euphoria of my very first (think FF VII) is up for debate. Regardless, I couldn’t pass up the idea to paint my favorite characters rocking some chibi. I wore these nails around and put a plug in for FA with every coworker that crossed my path. I’m hoping for an FA revolution here, guys. Cross your Ed and Al adorned fingers that others find their way to this series too!

The perfect primary red color I used as the base for Ed and Al is called “Poinsettia” by China Glaze. My amazing friend nerdpolish gave it to me to try, and I couldn’t love her more for it; I know this will be a well-used polish. Check out her blog if you can’t get enough “nerd on nail” action. I just made that up, it’s not a real thing. But check out her blog anyway!

I can’t wait until the 2nd season of Game of Thrones airs this weekend! I still remember how I felt when the last episode of the 1st season ended with (SPOILERS!) dragons climbing all over Daenerys. “HolyCrapThat’sFreakingAwesome!” was pretty much what my reaction amounted to. The problem is that I’m not quite prepared for the series to start up again, since I’m only half way through reading the 2nd book. With school and work, I just can’t keep up with these thousand page bricks of brilliance. So instead of trying to finish the book like a smart little girl, I decided to spend time on painting my nails with Game of Thrones sigils.

Hopefully I did a good enough job that you all can tell what’s going on, but if not I’ll point out that the wolf of the Stark house, the lion of the Lannister house, the 3-headed dragon of the Targaryn house, and the stag antlers of the Baratheon house are all represented in tiny detail. I’m so excited with how they turned out, and I can’t wait to show them off to other people who stinking love this show! Enjoy!

These nails were my second attempt at nail art about a month ago. I painted them right after the Lorax nails, when I was still extremely ambitious enough to even paint with my non-dominant hand. The sky and bushes on my right hand took about an hour in and of themselves because it was so difficult to steady the paint brush in my left hand. Now I just paint my left hand that will be photographed and leave the other one in solid colors; shh, don’t tell! I split this nail design up over 2 days since I was up until 2 am on a school night just trying to finish Chuckie’s teeth! People sometimes ask me how I can stand spending hours on one nail creation when they are just going to be destroyed in a few days. The thing is, I don’t care how long it takes to do them when I end up with something that I am so proud of. I will have the pictures as a reminder of the work I did, and the lasting feeling of joy at having painted something that makes me and others happy!

So anyways, let’s cut the sappy speak and get down to the nitty-gritty! I used China Glaze “Sweet Hook” nail polish from the Electropop collection as the base for these nails (which you can still snag at Sally’s if you’re quick!) This was such a perfect color for the Rugrats sky that it inspired me to do the Rugrats design as soon as I bought it. This design was done back in the day, when my sad and short nails made people cringe. So, here’s the truth: these are indeed fake nails. Now that my nails are healthy and strong after taking the time to protect and care for them, I threw out my fake nails rather than ruining my own with glue. Every other post I’ve made have been pictures of my own decorated nails except for the Lorax nails.

These are some nails that I did a couple weeks ago, and just never got around to posting. I tend to drift towards nostalgic references when I think about new nail art ideas, and Scooby-Doo has always been my very favorite animated show. I would watch reruns of the original on Cartoon Network every day. I think Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island was underappreciated. Most of all, I just loved the colors on the groovy mystery van! The green and blue polishes I used together really make me smile. I used O.P.I. “Green-Wich Village” for the green and Americana acrylic paint to paint the blue waves and orange flowers. I got a lot of compliments on these because people thought the colors were great for spring, so give them a try and prepare to have people reminisce with you!

When we got Mass Effect 3 home from the midnight release, the man and I glued our eyes to the screen and overdosed on energy drinks. Fast-forward to 5pm the next day, when I finally decided to peel myself from the couch for a much needed break. That’s when I thought of painting these bad boys.

I knew it would be nearly impossible to detail the actual faces of Tali, Thane, and Liara on my nails, but I wanted to pay tribute to them anyway. So I took inspiration from the distinct colors and patterns of their skin and outfits instead. I worked really hard on making them look as true as I could, and I’m pretty pleased with how they turned out. I’d like to start posting tutorials soon, but I need to learn to use my camera a little bit better and be able to buy a tripod. So stay tuned for that!

Dedication = Walking around with E. Pluribus Anus on my thumb nail. The man and I will be propping our butts on the couch in 2 days for this long awaited reunion, and I am so excited that I had to fly the blue, white, and pink colors on my nails! I love Community. Enough said.

(Oh, by the way…for you nail junkies that actually care, the perfect Greendale blue on my nails is “Jet Set to Paris” by L’Oreal. I have to say, this was one of the BEST nail polishes I have ever worked with. I was so surprised. The brush is thin, but wide, and left absolutely no bubbles).

I used to bite my nails. A lot. If I was bored, nervous, watching Supernatural, or working, my hand would fly to my mouth faster than you can say “Stop, that’s gross!” I’ve been trying to break the habit ever since I can remember, but the hairspray on my nails could only deter me for so long. The one thing that finally made a difference was when I decided to make my nails my creative outlet. Now I want them to be long and strong, so I can paint all sorts of crazy characters on them. Like these green little guys! I figured their faces were perfect for my growing nails, and they were really fun to paint. I remember watching episodes of their show while eating a bowl of cocoa puffs and drinking Kool-aid. I’ve grown out of the Kool-aid (not the cocoa puffs) but I still love watching cartoons, so I wanted to pay tribute to one of the greats. I wanted the background color to be orange because that’s the color of their bellies. The only orange I had on hand was “Times Square Tangerine Creme” from N.Y.C., which I would not recommend. I’ve had this nail polish since high school when I only painted my nails on occasion, so I only spent a couple dollars on a bottle. I’d only used this once before because it was too thick to begin with, but needless to say it ended up bubbling like crazy and didn’t dry fast enough so it was super streaky. Oh shucks, looks like I’ll just have to go out and buy a better orange!

The Lorax has always been my favorite Dr. Seuss book, so when I found out there was going to be a movie rendition I jumped for joy! When I began doing nail art 2 weeks ago, this was the first thing I knew I wanted to attempt. The color scheme of the Lorax is so gorgeous, with all of its pastels mixed with bright orange and yellow. I used “Havana Dreams” of Sephora by O.P.I for the blue sky base. Acrylic paints are easier to work with than nail polish, so those are what I use to paint the details on my nails. They are a lot cheaper than nail polish too, so you can buy a ton of different colors without going broke